Unofficial nickname. Minnesota is known on its license plates as the “Land of 10,000 Lakes,” but Minnesota actually has 11,842 lakes that are 10 acres or more. The legend of Paul Bunyan gives Paul and Babe the Blue Ox credit for creating the lakes with their footprints. In reality, Minnesota’s many lakes were created by the filling of depressions when four large glacier systems melted.

Unofficial nickname. There was discussion in the mid 19th C about whether to call Minnesota "The Gopher State" or "The Beaver State." In February 1858, the new Minnesota Legislature introduced the “Five Million Loan” bill. The purpose was to provide money to build railroads in the state. During the public debate, a cartoon circulated depicting the railroad tycoons as nine gophers with human heads pulling a Gopher Train. This possibly helped sway the decision to The Gopher State. In fact, the nickname refers to the “striped gopher” which is not actually a gopher, but is a thirteen-lined ground squirrel.

Unofficial nickname. This name came into use at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, New York in 1902. The superior wheat, flour and dairy products of Minnesota and its numerous flourmills and butter-making plants caused the state to be referred to as ‘The Bread and Butter State’.